Furnishing elements that have a function mainly of heating are known: as well as having the normal domestic and/or furnishing functions, they also have the function of heating the place where they are installed and/or its user or users.
These known furnishing elements have conformations imposed mainly by the heating function, while the traditional domestic and/or furnishing functions are neglected.
Indeed, the known techniques for making this type of furnishing element, such as for example pressure casting, shell mold casting, assembly by welding and other, provide to make, directly in the casting or welding step, the components which perform the heating function, such as for example the pipes inside which the heat-carrying fluid flows, or inside which the electric resistances are inserted.
As a result, the aesthetics of the furnishing element and the domestic and/or furnishing function is limited, in that it is constrained and adapted to the possible disposition of the pipes for each determinate process of production used.
An example of said furnishing elements produced by welding are the so-called towel warming radiators, which combine the functions of supporting the towels and those of heating, typical of a radiator.
As a result, the planning and production of said equipment to produce the furnishing elements must be concentrated on the conformation that the heating components must have: the components also determine the aesthetic guide lines, conditioning the possible conformations and domestic and/or furnishing functions themselves.
This necessity therefore limits the possible aesthetic conformations of the heating element, and the type of furnishing element to which the function of heating can be combined.
Therefore, in the state of the art, a furnishing element with a particular design having surfaces with three-dimensional curves, free in space, such as an armchair, an upright piece or other, is difficult to produce, while also guaranteeing an efficient and specific heating function.
Moreover, the known techniques do not allow to produce in advantageously economic terms the pipes conformed so as to be able to follow the development of surfaces with a three-dimensional curve, free in space.
Furthermore, the known techniques for making these furnishing elements are economically justified only for productions on a large scale, that is, in series with a large number of pieces.
This limits the possibility of functional, structural and aesthetic personalization of the furnishing elements, that is, of unitary production, or of a few units of the furnishing elements with heating function.
A furnishing element is known from the German patent application DE-A-38 18406, in this case a chair, made of plastic material provided with an integrated heater.
Movable chairs having integrated electric heating devices are also known form the European patent EP-A-0 188 002, in which the electric heating devices are activated or deactivated electronically depending on the position of the chair.
The British patent application GB-A-2 172 393 refers to a heating device which can be applied to an existing chair in order to actuate the heating of the backrest and of the seat part.
None of these documents teaches how to make the chairs in themselves, nor how to associate the heating device to the chair during the production step of the chair.
Applying the normal casting and molding techniques, the solutions described in these documents have the disadvantages discussed above.
One purpose of the present invention is to make a furnishing element with a conditioning function which is simple and economic to make even in small series, which can have substantially any aesthetic and functional shape, and which guarantees an efficient function of conditioning the room and/or the user/users.
Another purpose of the present invention is to perfect a method which allows to make a furnishing element with a conditioning function, in a simple and economic way, even in small series, substantially of any aesthetic and functional shape, and with an efficient function of conditioning the room and/or the user/users.
The Applicant has devised, tested and embodied the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the state of the art and to obtain these and other purposes and advantages.